The Laws of Candy Part 2

You are obey'd, my Lord.

Antinous:

_Decius_, fall off.

Decius:

I shall.

Ca.s.silanes:

Give leave _Arcanes_: Young man, come nearer to me: who am I?

Antinous:

It were a sin against the piety Of filial duty, if I should forget The debt I owe my Father on my knee: Your pleasure?

Ca.s.silanes:

What, so low? canst thou find joints, Yet be an Elephant? _Antinous_, rise; Thou wilt belye opinion, and rebate The ambition of thy gallantry, that they Whose confidence thou hast bewitch'd, should see Their little G.o.d of War, kneel to his Father, Though in my hand I did grasp Thunder.

Antinous:

Sir, For proof that I acknowledge you the Author Of giving me my Birth, I have discharg'd A part of my Obedience. But if now You should (as cruel fathers do) proclaim Your right, and Tyrant-like usurp the glory Of my peculiar honours, not deriv'd From successary, but purchas'd with my bloud, Then I must stand first Champion for my self Against all interposers.

Ca.s.silanes:

Boldly urg'd, And proudly, I could love thee, did not anger Consult with just disdain, in open language To call thee most ungrateful. Say freely, Wilt thou resign the flatteries whereon The reeling pillars of a popular breath Have rais'd thy Giant-like conceit, to add A suffrage to thy Fathers merit? speak.

241]

Antinous:

Sir, hear me: were there not a Chronicle Well pen'd by all their tongues, who can report What they have seen you do; or had you not Best in your own performance writ your self, And been your own text, I would undertake Alone, without the help of Art, or Character, But only to recount your deeds in Arms, And you should ever then be fam'd a President Of living victory: But as you are Great, and well worthy to be stiled Great, It would betray a poverty of Spirit In me to obstruct my fortunes, or descent, If I should coward-like surrender up The interest which the inheritance of your vertue And mine own thrifty fate can claim in honour: My Lord, of all the ma.s.s of Fame, which any That wears a Sword, and hath but seen me fight, Gives me, I will not share, nor yield one jot, One t.i.ttle.

Ca.s.silanes:

Not to me?

Antinous:

You are my Father, Yet not to you.

Ca.s.silanes:

Ambitious Boy, how dar'st thou To tell me, that thou wilt contend?

Antinous:

Had I Been slothful, and not follow'd you in all The streights of death, you might have justly then Reputed me a b.a.s.t.a.r.d: 'tis a cruelty More than to murther Innocents, to take The life of my yet infant-honour from me.

Ca.s.silanes:

_Antinous_, look upon this badge of age, Thy Father's grey-hair'd beard: full fifty years, (And more than half of this, ere thou wert born) I have been known a Souldier, in which time I found no difference 'twixt War and Peace, For War was Peace to me, and Peace was War.

_Antinous_, mark me well; there hath not liv'd These fifty years a man whom _Crete_ prefer'd Before thy Father; let me boldly boast, Thy Father, both for Discipline a[n]d Action 242] Hath so long been the first of all his Nation; Now, canst thou think it honest, charitable, Nay humane, being so young, my Son, my Child, Begot, bred, taught by me, by me thy Father, For one days service, and that on thy first, To rob me of a glory which I fought for A half of hundred years?

Antinous:

My case observes Both equity and presidents; for Sir, That very day whereon you got your Fame, You took it from some other, who was then Chief in repute, as you are now, and has been Perhaps as many years deserving that Which you gain'd in a day, as I have mine.

Ca.s.silanes:

But he was not my Father then, _Antinous_; Thou leav'st out that.

Antinous:

Sir, had he been your Father, He had been then immortal; for a Father Heightens his reputation where his Son Inherits it, as when you give us life, Your life is not diminish'd but renew'd In us when you are dead, and we are still Your living Images.

Ca.s.silanes:

So be thou curs'd In thy posterity, as I in thee, Dishonourable Boy; O shall that Sun, Which not a year yet since beheld me mounted Upon a fiery Steed, waving my Sword, And teaching this young Man to manage Arms, That was a raw, fresh Novice in the feats Of Chivalrie, shall that same Sun be witness Against this Brat of his Ingrat.i.tude?

Who, to eclipse the light of my renown, Can no way hope to get a n.o.ble Name, But by the treading on his Father's Greatness; Thou wilt not yield?

[Enter _Arcanes_]

Antinous:

My life, but not the prize My Sword hath purchas'd.

243]

Arcanes:

The Senate, My Lord, are here at hand, and all the Souldiers Begin to throng about them.

Ca.s.silanes:

Now, _Arcanes_, the--

Arcanes:

What, Sir?

Ca.s.silanes:

Trifles will affront us; that Fine fighting Stripling.

Arcanes:

Let him have the shame on't; 'Please you withdraw on this side.